I almost talked myself out of racing today and I'm so glad I didn't. I stayed in bed too long to ride down to White St so I was very uncool and drove there. The wind was gusting up to 100km an hour by the time I left according to BOM so I'm glad I took the easy way out.
I entered C Grade for the first time today and lined up with 12 other women.
The first 15mins were slow, super social pace. There was chatting and laughing going on behind me. After a while I got a little sick of it and the calls of 'are you racing or chatting' from the sidelines were getting on my nerves. I hit the front along the back straight into the wind and ramped up the pace along the finish line. I tried to get one other girl who'd been on the front to come with me but she was happy to sit on my wheel.
The pace picked up from there and it was on. The bunch was choppy and there was alot of undercutting and drifting through the corners. There was one tangle and scream but I was up the front so didn't get caught up in it. Luckily the girls that got chopped didn't hit the tarmac.
The pace was really hot, with lots of attacks going off the front. I did my share off the front and used up way too much energy.
With 2 laps to go, the girl in front of me dropped the wheel and I had to swing out wide and work hard to catch the lead group. Just as I got to them they got the bell lap and they took off, I didn't have anything more so they rode off on me. I rode the last lap solo and got caught by one rider on the last corner I stuck with her and then just got pipped by one more fast finisher for 5th.
I was happy with that. It was hard work.
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